Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)
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HSRC Press
Human Sciences Research Council
16th Floor, Pleinpark Building
69-83 Plein Street, Cape Town
Private Bag X9182, Cape Town, 8000
South Africa
Tel: +27 21 466 8000
Fax: +27 21 461 0836
Dr Stephen Rule, srule@hsrc.ac.za
Mr Zakes Langa, gzlanga@hsrc.ac.za
Description
The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) of South Africa is a statutory research institution established in terms of the Human Sciences Research Act, No 23 of 1968, which requires it to focus its activities on research into societal problems. It therefore conducts research that generates critical and independent knowledge relative to all aspects of human and social development. Poverty alleviation and public policy development and implementation are central to all its research activities. Its research extends beyond South African borders through projects and collaborations in other African countries.
A social science research organization committed to making a difference in the quality of life of ordinary people, the HSRC is often commissioned to undertake large-scale research on behalf of government departments at national, regional and local levels. The HSRC also serves the research needs of parastatal organizations and the private sector, as well as local and international development agencies to track service delivery, evaluate performance and measure the efficacy of interventions.
The HSRC's mission is to facilitate problem solving and enhance decision making through research excellence in the human sciences. It pursues its mission by conducting research in the following main areas: economic and social analysis, education and training and democracy and governance. The organization has equipped itself to respond flexibly and comprehensively to national requirements, by aligning its research capabilities into the following eleven interdisciplinary, problem-orientated, research programs: Assessment Technology and Education Evaluation, Education Policy, Employment and Economic Policy, Human Resources Development, Child, Youth and Family Development, Democracy and Governance, Integrated Rural and Regional Development, Knowledge Management, Social Aspects of HIV and AIDS and Health, Social Cohesion and Integration and Surveys, Analyses, Mapping and Modelling.
A matrix management approach is followed, allowing researchers from the different programs to regroup and form project teams requiring combinations of research skills, for instance in areas such as indigenous knowledge systems, gender studies and monitoring and evaluation.
In recent years the HSRC has undergone major restructuring, aligning its research activities and structures to South Africa's national development priorities: notably poverty reduction through economic development, skills enhancement, job creation, the elimination of discrimination and inequalities and effective service delivery. The HSRC also seeks to contribute to the research and development strategy of its parent, Department of Science and Technology, especially through its mission to focus on the contribution of science and technology in addressing poverty.
With its new structures and greatly extended research complement of more than 130 top researchers and 100 support staff in five different centres, the HSRC is well equipped to respond to these current and emerging needs. Its ten multi-disciplinary research programs, focused on user needs, are spread across five centres in different parts of South Africa. Two-thirds of the organization’s projects involve collaborators from other research entities, especially higher-education institutions.
HSRC is a professional, service-oriented organization accountable to clients and the public sector through the professional work standards upheld by staff. Its research work is carried out in accordance with the Code of Research Ethics and a Code of Business Ethics.
The HSRC has a strong corporate support structure incorporating research and administrative support functions such as finances, human resources, a computer centre providing data management services for research and operational management, a modern library with dedicated information services, and a section supporting publications and product sales. The organization has a presence in Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth. Through its different offices, the HSRC is able to forge excellent links with local institutions of higher learning, government and non-government organizations and international donor organizations active in all the provinces of South Africa. These offices are strategically placed to provide logistical support for survey teams undertaking empirical studies across the country.
A ministerially appointed Council is the highest body of governance in the organization. The role of the Council Secretariat is to provide secretarial services to the HSRC Council and Council's subcommittees, Management/PSA Bargaining Forum and Research Ethics Committee (REC) and to provide secretarial and administrative services to the HSRC Management.
Led by the CEO, the secretariat has approximately 150 researchers, mainly specialists, 40 interns and 100 support staff. It oversees the daily running of the organization. The CEO of the HSRC is legally accountable for the overall performance of the organization.
Although the HSRC is a nonprofit organization, it operates on the basis of full recovery of costs. Staff members with business volume are required to generate income to absorb not only all project-related costs, but also all overhead costs. Sources of income to fund research activities of the HSRC include core funding through a parliamentary grant, competitive funding through sources such as the Innovation Fund, government contracts, contracts and grants from international and national funding agencies, private sector contracts, as well as product sales and professional services.
The HSRC reports annually to Parliament, and adheres to the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act (Act No. 1 of 1999), as well as to other Acts of Parliament governing financial reporting and accountability. Financial statements as well as information on performance are included in its annual report. Therefore, its revenue is presently derived roughly equally from its Parliamentary grant and from earnings through tenders, commissions, and founding grants.
Track Record
The HSRC is the largest social science research organization in Africa and plays a leading role in the fourteen South African Development Community countries and elsewhere in Africa. It supports development nationally, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and in Africa. It primarily conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific projects for public-sector users, non-governmental organizations and international development agencies. Its research covers all aspects of development and poverty alleviation in Africa. It undertakes collaborative, often large-scale, research for government departments at national, regional and local levels, other public entities and local and international development agencies.
The HSRC’s collaborative approach to research enables interaction with research experts in South Africa, in Africa and internationally. In addition to conducting commissioned research, the organization proactively disseminates its research findings in peer-reviewed publications, seminars, lectures and media briefings. While functioning as a knowledge hub, the HSRC contributes to bridging the gap that so often exists between research, policy and action.
As a social science organization, the HSRC's most valuable asset lies in the potential of its researchers. Top-quality research executives and specialists capacity is extended locally, regionally and internationally through collaboration with peers in other science councils, tertiary institutions and research entities. Collectively, HSRC staff members have the knowledge and skills to undertake policy-relevant research, in accordance with user needs.
In addition, the HSRC remains the leader in the development of geo-demographic/lifestyle segmentation information for South Africa at a small spatial area level. By using artificial intelligence, the GIS Centre was the first institution in South Africa to spatially display the geo-demographics of the South African population at a small spatial area level covering the entire country. The GIS Centre has used artificial intelligence to extrapolate information from the HSRC's 1999 national social survey to show the distribution of the South African population in terms of their Living Standard Measures (LSM's). An important project in this regard entailed making the 1996 census information readily available in a GIS format and adding value to the data to deal with specific issues. For example, population estimates for 2000 were created from the 1996 census through a variety of techniques.
Challenges
The HSRC straddles the complex and fruitful territory between social-scientific inquiry and social policy; theory and practice; academia and government. Its research must meet criteria defined by utility and service, but must also be scientifically rigorous and of high quality, not least because it is often taken into public policy and program implementation. On one level, this is evident in the marked diversification of the organization’s sources of funding. However the HSRC is also reacting to and is part of increasingly sophisticated and diverse post-apartheid South Africa and the complex, ambiguous, but also unavoidable forces of globalization that challenge South Africa’s integrity and prosperity. Therefore, while providing opportunities that a modern knowledge-based society can grasp and utilize to the incalculable benefit of its citizens, the organization has to find a way to efficiently address these forces.
Another area open to debate is the precise balance in the HSRC’s project mix. Challenges arise when the centrality of large-scale research diverts attention or resources from medium- and small scale, but still important, research projects that also serve a significant developmental purpose.
Opportunities
In the past, the HSRC was a key institution in helping to define and drive apartheid social engineering. Its agenda was largely shaped and its findings frequently applied in elaborating and carrying out the racial programs of the minority government of the day. Today, the organization serves a democratic government guided by a rights-based Constitution. Its prime task is to contribute to far-reaching socio-economic transformation, and to the tackling of the development challenges of the country and the continent, through policy-relevant and largely applied social-scientific research. On this basis, it is expected to undertake a positive, independent, and—where necessary—critical engagement with a very different South African tradition that does not demand slavish adherence to ideology, and is therefore, at its best, willing to follow through the logic of well-presented and convincing research. HSRC should take this advantage of openness to explore sensitive areas in its social research.
The organization has developed and is recognized for its expertise and experience in such research, and was recognized by the Institutional Review as being in a good position in the country, and region, to organize consortia for such purposes. The government also feels that HSRC should foster and undertake fundamental and applied social science relevant to the development challenges faced by South Africa, especially through projects linked to large scale, public sector oriented, collaborative programs. This is an opportunity for the organization to showcase its capability.
HSRC should also develop and make publicly available new data sets to underpin research, policy development and public discussion of key development issues and to develop new and improved methodologies for their production use. Although the organization is already doing this by availing its information on the internet, it should also use its collaborating institutions to avail its researches in Africa and beyond.
